Elevators generally comprise a holding brake, which is used to keep the elevator car in its position when the car has stopped at a floor level. Usually an electromagnetic e.g. drum brake or disc brake is used as a holding brake.
Conventionally a drum brake is used in elevators, which drum brake comprises at least an active part provided with a brake pad and with an actuator moving the brake pad, and a brake drum, being a passive part, connected to the rotor of the hoisting motor in the hoisting machine and rotating along with said rotor, on the outer rim of which brake drum is a braking surface. The drum brake of an elevator generally operates such that when the brake is closed, the spring comprised in the active part of the brake presses the brake shoe and the brake pad connected to it against the braking surface of the brake drum, in which case the elevator car stays in its position. During a run, current is connected to the electromagnet of the brake and the magnet pulls the brake shoe and the brake pad off the braking surface of the brake drum, in which case the brake is open and the elevator car can move up or down in the elevator hoistway. The brake implementation of an elevator can be e.g. such that the implementation comprises two electromagnetic brakes functioning as the active part, which brakes are disposed outside the rim of a brake drum on opposite sides of the rim of the brake drum to each other as viewed from the front in the direction of the axis of rotation of the brake drum.
There are a number of work phases in the manufacture of an electromagnetic brake. The coil of a brake is manufactured e.g. from glued wire or by winding a copper conductor around a coil former. After this the glued wire/copper conductor of the coil is connected to a supply conductor e.g. by soldering, the supply conductor is threaded out of a machining aperture made in the frame part of the brake, and the machining aperture is sealed. In addition, the supply conductor is tightened and attached to a separate cable clamp, sleeved and connected to a connector fixed to the frame part of the brake.
The joining and connection of the supply conductors occurs as manual work, which creates a quality risk, lengthens the manufacturing time of a brake and increases costs. In addition, the quantity of components needed is quite large, which also has an effect on the reliability of the brake. There is, in fact, a need to simplify the structure of a brake and to raise the degree of automation in connection with the manufacturing process of a brake.